Cornerstone recognizes that Christ is our reason for being. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22). Peter declared, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11). Paul wrote that we are “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20).

Baptist acknowledges that we hold to believer’s baptism. The biblical pattern reveals that converts to Jesus Christ are to submit to baptism, “a church’s act of affirming and portraying a believer’s union with Christ by immersing him or her in water, and a believer’s act of publicly committing him or herself to Christ and his people, thereby uniting a believer to the church and marking off him or her from the world” (Bobby Jamieson, Understanding Baptism, p. 6).

Church signifies that we are a God-called assembly. We gather in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything about our existence is centered upon God: God created us; God sovereignly directs our ways, and God has chosen us for himself. We gather not to have a good time or receive a blessing, though we do enjoy our gathering and we do receive blessings. We gather as a local expression of the body of Christ so that we may glorify our triune God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) declares that “the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” This, indeed, is our desire as a body of believers. God alone is worthy of worship, and he alone is worthy of our devotion.

What will you find at Cornerstone? We sing songs of the faith that praise God and teach us the Word of Christ (Colossians 3:16), emphasizing the singing of the congregation and not the talents of soloists or the skill of instrumentalists. We join with believers throughout history as we declare the fundamental elements of the faith through reciting the Apostle’s Creed one Sunday and the Nicene Creed the next. We offer prayers to God to adore him and beseech his aid, and we hear his inerrant and authoritative Word exposited that we may be equipped to do his will.